Nick Saban Opens Up on Biggest Sacrifice for Career and Lesson He Learned 50 Years Too Late: “Didn’t Have a Lot of Time With…”
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Nick Saban became the greatest coach in college football history by sacrificing the one thing even seven national championships could never give back: time. For 50 years, there was always another practice, another recruit, another game and another problem more urgent than slowing down. It built a dynasty. It also meant watching parts of his own family’s life pass by without him.
Nick Saban’s final Alabama season ended at 12-2 with an SEC title and a Rose Bowl overtime loss to Michigan. Then, at 72, he retired. Away from the job, Saban realized what the pace had cost him. For 50 years, football had always come first, and much of his family life had passed while he was focused on winning.
“I missed my kids growing up,” Nick Saban said during his appearance with Theo Von. “I didn’t really want to miss my grandkids growing up. So [retirement] has given me a little bit more time to have those relationships.”
That was the tradeoff he had made for decades. He could dominate a football program, but he couldn’t be in two places at once. Nick Saban said the limited time he had with his children made one thing particularly important.
“I didn’t have a lot of time with my kids that I made sure that the time I had with them was quality time,” he said.
That became his approach at home. The lessons weren’t all that different from football, either.
“A lot of the same things that help you be successful in life are the same things that would help you be successful in football,” he said.
His children grew up around the demands of the job, but Nick Saban believes those values helped both Nicholas and Kristen Saban find their own paths. Still, he also couldn’t get back the time he spent being absent from his family.
Nick Saban said his family sometimes managed only one proper family dinner during the week. Wednesday was the one night everyone could sit down together. His wife Terry eventually created another tradition because she understood how badly the family needed time together.
Sunday evenings, despite being one of Nick Saban’s busiest days, became family dinner time. From 5 to 6 p.m., coaches, spouses, children and grandchildren gathered. It wasn’t just about her husband. It gave the families around Alabama’s program a chance to stay connected while their husbands and fathers were consumed by football.
And that says something about Terry’s role during all those years. While Nick Saban was worrying about players and games, she was keeping the family side of the operation from falling apart.
Now, retirement finally let Nick Saban see what he had been missing. He could watch his grandchildren play sports. He could spend more time with Terry. He could just be home enjoying the ordinary without having to constantly check up on his schedules. Then came the moment that stopped him in his tracks.
Nick Saban was sitting in traffic with Terry. Cars were backed up because the road had narrowed to one lane. The old Saban would have found a way around everybody. The retired Saban didn’t. Terry noticed and asked, “You mean you’re not going to pass everybody illegally and cut in?”
“We’re not in a hurry,” he replied and that was the revelation.
“It’s the first time when I retired that I realized that I wasn’t in a hurry,” he said. “And I was in a hurry for 50 years and didn’t know it. I was always hurrying up to the next thing… And you talk about relieving stress. That relieves stress better than anything.”
The trophies are easy to count. Six national championships at Alabama, another at LSU, conference titles and a coaching legacy that changed college football. The missed dinners aren’t. Now, Nick Saban has discovered that slowing down can be its own kind of achievement. While he’s still involved in business, television, and other projects, the clock no longer controls every part of his day.
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